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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22868068">Stairway</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zarius/pseuds/Zarius'>Zarius</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Doctor Who, Doctor Who &amp; Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>BBC, Episode: s12e09 Ascension of the Cybermen, F/M, Gallifrey, Garden of Eden, Grand entrance, Half-Human, Spoilers, Truth</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 08:49:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>241</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22868068</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zarius/pseuds/Zarius</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It was a hell of an entrance.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Thirteenth Doctor &amp; The Master, Thirteenth Doctor &amp; The Master (Dhawan)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>34</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Stairway</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was a hell of an entrance.</p><p>He could tell she was mesmerised by it.</p><p>Mesmerised, and a little frightened.</p><p>His handiwork was right behind him, a trail blazed in fire and bone.</p><p>He wondered just how taken aback they were by it, this storm that had gathered.</p><p>The Doctor and her faithful flock, how would she navigate them through this blazing pit?</p><p>Would she turn to him to guide the way?</p><p>If she took hold of his hand, and allowed him to lead her through the ashes, there would be no guarantee the others’ safety.</p><p>They had put her trust in her, and she had handed to them a lie as hollow as the timeless child.</p><p>This was no stairway to heaven, no utopia.</p><p>He had again struck deep at the Doctor’s favourite race, now potentially exposed as her very race of origin.</p><p>Was this a truth he had convinced himself of? And if it were but a dare, did he risk sharing it?</p><p>Such possibilities, such ideas, could only be bestowed upon him by the twists of the daggers within his brain, a merciless taunt by the universe which spawned him.</p><p>With The Doctor as witness to his testimony, he would speak this truth to her as effectively, as delicately, as he could.</p><p>He owed it to her. To everything they were, to everything they could still be together.</p><p>She ought to brace herself.</p><p>This was going to hurt.</p>
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